Some Things Are Meant To Be
by Lady Eponine Black
Summary: The three Black sisters have always done everything together, always been as close as the were when they were children. Or, at least, pretended to be. But now Andromeda is gone, having denied her family and gone against everything Bellatrix believed in. And now Bellatrix must learn to forget her sister. Written for the 'Five Stages Of Grief Challenge.'
1. Denial

**_Written for the five stages of grief competition. _**

"She can't be gone." Bellatrix snapped at her younger sister, glaring at her with those stony amethyst eyes of hers that made even poised, perfect Narcissa flinch.

"She left last night, Bella, I heard her go." The tall, seventeen year old, blonde insisted, leaning on the doorframe as she watched her darker sister yank her robes over her head. Yes, she had heard her, spoken to her... and so she knew her sister to be gone forever.

"You were dreaming. You must have been dreaming, that's all. She'd _never_."

"She's gone."

"She's not. Go bother somebody else, she's not gone, she's not gone, she's _not_ gone, do you hear me, Narcissa?" She snarled, turning her back on her sister and the truth her sister held. The truth she knew in her heart to be true, not matter how much she denied it to herself. Narcissa was not the only one who had spoken to Andromeda last night.

"Bella - "

"_No._ You're lying to me." She said, at once the sulky child. "You're lying to me. I don't believe it, she can't be gone. She never would have left. Not without telling us."

"Bella...?" Narcissa began, remembering tears, pleading, the slam of the door still raw in her ears.

"_Don't _Say _anything_, Narcissa! She could never have run off with that..._scum_."

"Bella, we knew something would happen. It wasn't right, her being with that filthy mudblood. Something was bound to happen." Her voice was cool and devoid of all emotion, but anybody who knew her well would have noticed the faint frown on her perfect lips, the shadow in her ocean-blue eyes that would tell you she was upset.

"No, it wasn't. It was a passing fancy, nothing more. Just Andromeda being stupid."

"It was more then that."

"Are you defending her, Cissy? Because _if you are_…." She hissed, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"No! That's not what I meant. I meant that you are joking if you say you couldn't see this coming."

"Cissy…..Nothing happened last night. She's not gone, not with _him_. You must have made a mistake."

"She's going to marry him. She told me herself, the nerve of her!"

"She is nineteen, Cissa. You heard her, she speaks against marriage at such a young age – nonsense, of course, but that's what she said, you heard it as well as I."

" And I also heard her say – as did you – that she would marry anytime for love."

"Love! What of love? Who cares of love?"

" She did. As did he, I assume."

"That's filthy mudblood! How could she! That's a betrayal to us, to our family. It goes against everything, it ruins everything! He could never marry her. He's scum, and she's a pure-blood. A Black, the highest, the best, the purest."

"Don't play dumb with me Bellatrix, I'm not stupid. You knew this was going to happen."

"No."

"You saw it as well as I did."

"No."

"You've known she was seeing him, secretly."

"I never. If I had, I would have killed her and him both! He's the very thing we're fighting against, the very thing we strive to destroy!"

"We?"

"My Lord and I."

" Bella…" Narcissa stepped backward, wary of her wild haired older sister.

"_Don't _you 'Bella' me! You're lying, she's not gone, she can't be, it can't be true, it _can't_!" Her voice peaked on the last word, her eyes large and tinged with madness, her hands gripping her hairbrush like a dagger, as though she would use it to guard her against the truth she was trying so hard to deny.

"It is true. She left last night." Narcissa said gently. Bellatrix lunged toward her, her lips pulled back in a half snarl, half scream, hey eyes angry and hard as ice. Narcissa jumped back, catching her sisters hand in hers. "Bella, don't-"

"Don't tell me what to do, Narcissa! I am a thousand times better then you are, a thousand times more powerful. You are lying to me, and I command you to go!"

"Bella- "

"_GO!_" She half screamed, half sobbed, brandishing her hairbrush at her sister, who turned on her heel and fled. Bellatrix slammed the door after her, and with a cry of anger threw the hairbrush at the wall, where it exploded in a burst of purple fire. She walked over to the window, and took a deep breath. _She isn't gone. _She told herself harshly. _She would never betray us like that. She would never betray her family and her birthright, never shame us that way. She is to good for filth like that, the very vermin we try to wipe out. _She looked out the window, where the hot September sun was rising. _She can't be gone. We were going to see Narcissa off to her last year at Hogwarts tomorrow. Together. She was going to go with us to Narcissa's engagement party this winter, even though it is a shame to us that she is not yet engaged. She was going to be a maid of honor at my wedding. She said she'd never talk to that mudblood again. She promised. She said she would be better. She said it was over between them. She would never break our promise. She can't be gone. Narcissa is lying to me. Because if she really betrayed us like that…No. When I open my eyes, she'll be knocking at the door, telling me that she and Narcissa were fighting again – about the Malfoy boy Narcissa is engaged to, probably. She's say that Narcissa was being mean. When I open my eyes she'll be there. _But when at last her violet eyes opened, she saw nobody through the think haze of tears.


	2. Anger

"Bella?" Narcissa stood at the bottom of the staircase, her blond hair wound on top of her head, regal and beautiful in her emerald green gown, the pearls around her graceful neck slightly luminescent, catching the glow of the hanging chandelier. "Are you coming? We cannot be late."

" Do you really think it wise, Cissy?" snapped Bellatrix, appearing like a ghost at the top of the stairs, her face pale against the dark of her dress, her eyes cold chips of amethyst that matched the pendant she wore always around her neck.

"Bellatrix, I cannot miss my own engagement party! What are you thinking?" Narcissa said, exasperated. Her older sister glared at her.

"I did not find my own engagement party very…. thrilling. I think it no great shame to miss it."

" Yes, well, you were not to happy about the idea of being married in the first place, so it is no great wonder that you did not enjoy the party."

" You would not be happy either to be marrying a dolt like Rodulpholus. At least Lucius has _brains_."

" Lucius is a rich man from a wealthy family. As is Rodulpholus. The fact that he may be smarter is if no consequence whatsoever."

" You sound like mother."

"As I should. You should not complain, Bella. He is, after all, your age."

"Yes, that's about his most redeeming characteristic. And I'm not complaining. I know that we must marry to advance our family and keep our blood pure. I agree that it is the only thing – the right thing – to do."

"But not for you?"

"All I was saying is that I wish he were smarter, that's all. And nicer."

"And you never wanted to marry, did you, Bella?"

"You know I didn't. I wanted – want – greater things then that. But if it is for the good of the family…so it shall be." Bellatrix finished, leaning against the banister so that her dark curls tumbled over her shoulders and hung around her face.

"Yes, yes, of course. But Bellatrix, we must hurry or we shall be late. The car is waiting." She urged. Bellatrix tossed her hair over her shoulder, and glided down the velvet-carpeted stairs towards her younger sister, the ice queen.

"They will talk, Cissa." She murmured, very low, very soft, as though even the walls were listening as she broached this forbidden topic.

"They always talk. It is up to us to be above such idle rumors."

"But if they are true?"

"I daresay many of them will be. It is the nature of such matters."

"Did they talk at school?"

"It was a while before it got out – but eventually, yes."

"If this reaches the Malfoy boy…" Bellatrix whispered, glancing at her sister through heavily lidded eyes.

"I am sure it has. This is to big a matter to keep under wraps, Bella. I am sure everybody knows. It is up to us to ignore it and rise above it. We must show that although she is our sister, she is not like us."

"Have you heard what they are saying?"

"To a certain degree, yes."

"They say she has his child. They say he enchanted her. They say she did not sneak away alone. They say one of us helped her, is helping her still."

"You know that is not true, Bellatrix." Narcissa said sharply, shooting a glance at her sister. "You should be above such gossip."

"What did they say at Hogwarts?"

"They say she spoke to us, before she left. They say we did not try to stop her." Narcissa said quietly, turning to face her sister.

"Cissy, don't…."

"Do not deny it, Bella."

"I'm not..."

"She came to you as she did to me, did she not?"

"I don't - "

"Don't lie to me!" Narcissa said, her tone laced with irritation and pride.

"I do not lie!" Bellatrix half shrieked. "You should not talk of it, Narcissa. Do you hear me, you should never say that again, never repeat that, even when with me!"

" I only meant to ask…"

"Well, don't! Don't ever mention her name again, not in my presence."

"She is our sister." Narcissa said flatly.

"And she is a filthy blood traitor! She has disgraced our family, shamed us, brought down our reputation."

'As I well know."

" She is a discredit to our name! She is a dishonor to our family, to the name of Black, to the most noble Purebloods. I hate her! She has cast suspicion and doubt down on our family, and for what? For what? For a filthy mudblood from the very scum of civilization! For an ugly, idiot of a man who is the very vermin we try to destroy, the greatest threat to wizardkind! And for that! For that, she leaves her family and destroyers her good name. She is as low as they are."

"Bella, shush, somebody shall hear you."

" Oh yes, we don't want that, do we?" Bellatrix said, her tone verging on hysteric, her voice full of scorn.

"Bella, please."

"She is no longer a sister to us! She is no longer a daughter of Black. She is a blood traitor and a piece of scum!"

"I never said anything to the opposite, Bella. Please, try to calm down."

"If they ask about her, _anything_ about her, you will say nothing."

"I am aware of that. I am not stupid, Bellatrix. And what happened that night?"

"Nothing happened."

" I will not deny it to myself."

"You shall, and you shall start now."

"What happened that night happened."

"It did not."

"It did."

"It did not happen, Narcissa!" Bellatrix hissed.

"You know it did." Narcissa said, wearily.

"Then perhaps it would have been better for us all if it had not." Bellatrix turned and strode from the hall, her heals tapping angrily against the marble stones, like the tapping of death on cold front door.

"So shall it be." Narcissa whispered. "So shall it be." And she took a deep breath and smiled gaily, raised her head high, and strode from the room to the car where her betrothed awaited. And neither of them mentioned _her_ again that night.


	3. Bargaining

Bellatrix stood by the window in her bedroom, decorated with green and silver in honor of her Slytherin Family Pride, and with black in honor of her family, and feeling to her like a tomb. The stars glancing down on her disdainfully did little to light up her face, cloaked as it was in shadows, or her heart, buried as it was in the thorny web of twisted guilt and lies. She leaned her chin on her elbow and gazed out with grief-dulled eyes at the grounds, draped in the mystery of the night.

She watched the gravel drive leading up to their estate, the bushes and trees lining it making ominous shadows that loomed over most of the road and hid it from her sharp eyes that looked endlessly with the passion of the desperate.

She clutched at the amethyst amulet she always wore around her neck, the sharp points digging into her palm. She relished the pain. Andromeda had given her the necklace for her thirteenth birthday. That had been the year her life had began – the year she had found her Lord. The year also, that things had started to go wrong between her and her sisters, the mark on her arm and the new loyalties in her heart driving them apart.

_It didn't matter. _She thought. _None of that matters now. _She leaned out the window, her dark curls half obscuring her face. She scanned the drive, again and again, her eyes narrowed against the darkness. She would not use a spell to light up the night, for fear of finding nothing, seeing that nobody was making their way up the road, no sister coming home. _If she comes back,_ she promised herself, _I'll forgive her. If she comes back, everything will be forgotten, I won't say anything, anything at all. I'll never say anything to her about Ted ever again if she comes back. I promise I'll never hurt him. No matter what my Lord says, I'll never kill him if she comes back. Even if he is a mudblood, if she is a blood traitor, I will protect them. If she comes back. I won't tease her about her mudblood friends. I promise I won't hunt down anybody she doesn't want me to. She is my sister. I will do anything - anything - if she comes back._

Outside, the expressionless night wore on, uncaring as Bellatrix promised anything she could think of, if only she could see Andromeda's slim figure walking up the drive. But morning after morning dawned, and nobody appeared to fill the hole in her heart.


	4. Depression

Without Andromeda, she was nothing. An empty shell of a girl who cried endless tears and wished for something to end her misery. Andromeda had been her rock, her anchor, her constant companion. Somebody she could trust in a world where trust was the most dangerous thing you could give. Somebody she could talk to when the endless nights were to much to bear alone, when she felt as though she were living in a world of broken glass. Andromeda had been her constant, a sister who, although she might not agree with her, would never reprimand her when she talked of better things then marriage, as Narcissa did.

No matter now the things that had gone wrong; they were not the things she remembered as she sat alone in her darkened room. Now, she didn't remember her sister yelling at her not to be so damn coldhearted, not to join the Death Eaters, not to be who she was. Now, she remembered sunny childhood days when the darkness at home could be offset by a game in the flowerbeds, racing together around the estate, long hair blowing in the wind; voices laughing, feet pounding. Nevermind that the togetherness between them had deteriorated over the last couple years; never mind the fights and the screaming and the pain; the love had not faded. They were still sisters, the three Black sisters who had ruled Hogwarts with their beauty and power, the three Pureblood Princess's, the three sisters who had always had each other. Bellatrix swore that it would be different, would be so different, if her sister came back.

She saw Andromeda in her minds eye, and cried when the image began to fade, cried when she could barely see her smile, even though she had looked so much like her sister. When she looked in the mirror, she saw something behind her, like a second reflection, but when she turned, it had gone, as though it had never been there, though Bellatrix could have sworn she'd seen a sad, parting, smile, and heard a door slam.

Without Andromeda, the house seemed emptier, darker, the colors less vibrant. Faces blurred and voices tumbled together in a swirl of fog from which occasional memories thrust themselves at her, causing her to scream out in fear, or pain. The memory of her sister, her Andromeda, would not let her go, walked by her side where nobody else could see her, whispered in her ear secrets that were hers alone.

The only thing that drove her away was the flash of green light, the screams of the tortured, her masters praise. The screams of the innocent, the howls of pain and pleas for forgiveness drove her sister away, dispelled the fog that blanketed her heart. The Dark Lord's wonderful, beautiful voice drowned out the Andromeda in her head, and the scream of "Crucio!" never failed to bring her back to herself. Or to as much of herself remained, balanced on the knife-edge of insanity, ready to step through the door into the darkness. Soon, she no longer needed to be in the place where the screams of her victims dispelled her daemons, but she did not leave. She liked it there.


	5. Acceptance

"Bellatrix!" Narcissa snapped, jerking her sisters arm, clad in white lace. "Will you _stop _looking towards the door every thirty seconds like a frightened muggle!"

" I'm sorry." Bellatrix apologized reluctantly, turning back to her sister. "I wasn't thinking."

" Clearly." Murmured Narcissa. All was quiet in the bedroom for a moment. Bellatrix sat at the stately dressing table, staring moodily at herself in the mirror, her eyes restless and tired. She was clad in a fine white wedding dress, the long, pearl-embroidered skirt sweeping the highly-polished floor. Lace trimmed the fitted bodice and flowing sleeves, and sparkling diamonds adorned the low neckline. The pale fragility of her neck was enhanced by a heave necklace of emeralds set in silvers, and similar jewels decorated her ears. Narcissa, resplendent in a long silver gown decorated in green, stood behind her elder sister, her long, graceful fingers pinning up Bellatrix's wild curls into something more sedate and refined. An silver tiara set with emeralds and carved with the black family crest sat waiting on the table, encased in a heavy box lined with red velvet. After a minute or two, Bellatrix's eyes once again began wandering towards the half-open door, turning slightly as she leaned to see out into the hallway beyond. "Bella, for the last time, sit still! How do you expect me to do your hair if you keep hopping about like that!"

" Alright, alright. Go ahead and finish my hair. I don't care."

" You knew it was going to happen, Bellatrix. You couldn't stay unwed any longer."

"Yes, I _know_, Narcissa. Can we please not talk about it?"

" It going to happen in less then an hour, Bella. You can't pretend it isn't happening."

"Watch me." Bellatrix snapped, and Narcissa rolled her eyes. Bellatrix could be so _stubborn_.

" It won't be that bad, I bet."

"Just wait. It will be horrible, but it doesn't matter."

"No?"

"Of course not. It is just another step up for the family. It really has nothing to do with me at all." Bellatrix shrugged, twisted the cap off of a lipstick, and looked critically at herself in the mirror. _Well, she's right about that, no doubt about it. _Narcissa thought, twisting up one wild curl and securing it with a diamond encrusted bobby pin.

"I wish it were me, getting married." She remarked quietly.

"Next year it will be." Bellatrix reminded her. "Next year it will be you in a corset so tight that you can't breathe, mile high heels, and a crown that is probably cursed, getting married to an idiot of a boy."

"For the good of the family." Narcissa reminded her.

"Of course. And you can't wait, can you?" Narcissa allowed herself a small smile.

"No, I can't."

"Hm." Her sister grunted, blowing a curl out of her face. "Anyway, it's not like I'll have to do that much, as a wife, really."

"Bellatrix Black!" Narcissa exclaimed. "You will be a good pureblood wife, won't you?"

"Honestly Narcissa, like that's the most important thing in the world."

" You know it is."

"Not for me."

"What could possibly be more important then – will you look forward, _please_? "

"Sorry! Sorry! Are you almost done, Cissa?"

"Nearly. You didn't answer my question."

"You know what." Bellatrix whispered. Their eyes met in the mirror, and violet bore into blue with alarming ferocity, burning with a wordless desire that scared her younger sister, although she didn't how it.

"Bella…"

"I know what you're going to say, so please don't say it."

" Your loyalty is to the Black family and to your husband."

"My loyalty is to my Lord."

"You are married!"

"He is a death eater too, Cissy. He understands."

"That I seriously doubt. You are half in love with him, Bellatrix! Don't deny it!"

"Who?" Bellatrix asked, blushing slightly and looking down at her ring-encrusted fingers twinned in her lap. "Not my husband."

" No, and that is the problem! The Dark Lord."

"Don't ever, ever, repeat that." Bellatrix hissed, her voice stone cold and ringed with venom. "You could be _killed_ for less then that!"

"_I _am not a Death Eater."

"Yes, but your future husband is!" She exclaimed. That shut Narcissa up. She knew that her duty was to her husband.

"I'm sorry." She murmured.

"Never speak of it again."

"I won't."

"Are you finished? It's nearly time to leave."

"Hold on a second. There. Finished." Narcissa stepped back from the dressing table, surveying her handiwork proudly. "You look beautiful, Bella."

"Thank you." Bellatrix stood up, shaking out her gown and adjusting her jewelry. She walked to the window and looked out at the sunny day speckled with birdsong. Gently, Narcissa lifted the shinning, sparking crown out of the box. It's radiance seemed to fill the whole room. She set on her sisters head, slowly, carefully.

"There. A true Black Princess."

"Thank you, Cissa." Bellatrix reached up to brush the ornate silver, then let her hand drop to her lap. She fiddled with the ring on her finger, and twisted the edge of her sleeve between her forefinger and thumb. She glanced again towards the door. Narcissa looked at the clock.

"Bella! Stop dawdling, we should have been there a minute ago!" Narcissa started towards the door, but stopped when she saw her elder sister still standing by the window. "Bella? Aren't you coming? They'll start without you."

"I wish." She said bitterly. But still she did not move.

"Bella?" Narcissa went to stand next to her sister, still watching the drive. "What is it?" She said, noticing her sisters drawn face and tired eyes. Bellatrix didn't answer. "She's not coming, Bella." Narcissa said gently. "You have to stop watching for her. She's not coming."

"I know." Bellatrix said, finally looking away from the blue of the sky and ino Narcissa's blue eyes. "I know."


End file.
